Vor wenigen Tag ging eine Email von Getty Images an deren Fotografen. Darin wird kurz gesagt das Ende des „Rights Managed“-Lizenzmodells verkündet.
Aufmerksame Leser dieses Blogs dürften das spätestens nach dieser Portfolio-Analyse bei Getty Images vermutet haben. Demnach sind aktuell nur noch ca. 8% des Bildbestands RM-Material.
„Rights Managed“, oft RM abgekürzt, bedeutet, dass Bilder basierend auf den konkreten Nutzungsrechten lizenziert werden. Der Lizenzpreis richtet sich nach Variablen wie Nutzungsdauer, Auflagenhöhe, Verbreitung (Länder/Kontinente/weltweit) und so weiter. Dadurch ist die Preiskalkulation im Vergleich zu den „royalty free“-Bildern komplex und zeitaufwändig, sowohl für die Kunden als auch die Bildagentur. Eine genauere Erklärung zu RM findet ihr hier.
Laut Getty würden Kunden vermehrt Bilder wiederverwenden wollen und bei den geplanten Nutzungen flexibler sein. Deswegen werden seit gestern keine RM-Bilder mehr angenommen, ab Ende Januar 2020 werden keine RM-Bilder mehr auf der Getty-Webseite angezeigt.
Für alle, die diese Mail nicht erhalten haben, hier ist sie im Volltext:
„Continued success of royalty‑free licensing and our plans for a phased retirement of rights‑managed creative images
Over the years, customers’ needs have changed. Complicated licensing models create friction and customers demand simplicity—they want the most simple and most flexible access to relevant, authentic imagery.Royalty‑free (RF) imagery is now the preferred and dominant licensing model for our customers due to the simplicity, value and quality available. Licensing complexity has only led customers to other content, and in many cases, another provider as the broader industry is now essentially an RF‑only model.
We conducted extensive customer research and testing on RF versus rights‑managed (RM), including Market Freeze. We have confidently concluded that the RM creative image licensing model no longer meets our customers’ needs, especially given the flexibility demanded by digital marketing and the increasing reuse of imagery, and it actually reduces our overall competitiveness.
As a result, we plan to simplify our product offering through a phased retirement of RM creative images, moving to an RF‑only creative images offering during 2020. This will benefit customers and provide an opportunity to grow overall licensing volume and revenue for both Getty Images and our contributors:
When a customer uses GettyImages.com, they will have only one simple licensing model (RF) which contains all of our creative images.
Images appearing in customers‘ search results will be the most relevant—no longer will the results include RM, regardless of relevance—opening up more search exposure for creative RF.
Our customers will be able to focus on the one thing that matters to them—finding authentic quality content that connects with their target audience.
We see this fundamental change in our business model as key to furthering our growth and increasing the accessibility of amazing content to new customers and new markets.Your RM creative images
By the end of January 2020, your RM images will be removed from single image licensing (sometimes called à la carte) on GettyImages.com. Customers will still be able to complete renewals and purchase RM creative images for at least the following 30 days after that. Premium Access customers will still be able to access RM images until November 6, 2020.When RM is fully retired, you will be able to distribute your RM images as you wish, with the exception that you must not license any RM images (or similars) in a way that conflicts with any active, unexpired exclusive licenses. We will contact you again in November 2020 to confirm that RM has been fully retired and provide a report detailing such licenses.
We will stop accepting new RM creative images on November 6, 2019 at 11:59pm CET/ 10:59pm GMT/ 5:59pm EST/ 2:59pm PST. You can find out more in our FAQs, below.
RF opportunity
We encourage you to grow your RF portfolio with new fresh imagery to meet current customer demands, which you can do under your existing agreement.For guidance and inspiration, you can review our creative briefs, which identify the most needed subjects for our customers and enable you to respond to gaps in our RF collection. Our briefs reflect the research of our industry‑leading Creative Insight team, including market trends and customer licensing data, and are available on the Contributor Community Website and our Contributor app.
If you have any questions or need to contact us, please refer to the frequently asked questions below and regularly updated in our online contributor forums on the Contributor Community website.“
Diese Entscheidung betrifft ausdrücklich nur die „Creative“-Sparte mit den zeitlosen Bildern, die Nachrichten-Bilder werden bei Getty weiterhin als „rights managed“ angeboten.
Nichtsdestotrotz dürfte diese Entscheidung der Sargnagel für das RM-Marktsegment sein. Zwar gibt es aktuell noch einige Bildagenturen, die ihr Portfolio auf RM-Basis vermarkten, aber zumindest die Vertriebspartner von Getty Images wie Westend61, Imagebroker oder F1online dürften die Annahme von RM-Material vermutlich ebenfalls bald stoppen.
